When it came to the release of the Dior Tie Dye Summer Collection, it was really the Diorskin Nude Tan blushes that stole the show. Nothing gets beauty lovers more excited than beautifully embossed blushes like the limited edition Pink Sunrise* ($57.00 CDN) and Coral Sunset* each with four shades that fuse together to give skin the perfect blend of sun-kissed radiance. Also, they are SO PRETTY to look at! I can’t even…gah they are so gorgeous!

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to be sharing an all new bath and body line that I have been using this month! Even before I started blogging, I had a weakness for body lotions and scrubs and as of June, Walmart Canada has just started carrying what I see as a skincare style approach to bath and body care. As part of the well-known Freeman Beauty Labs (I love their masks!), c.Booth is an incredibly comprehensive, body line influenced by botanically-based ingredients such as sea salt, oatmeal, walnut shells and sunflower and sesame oils. All c.Booth products are of course free from parabens, sulfates, mineral oil and petrolatum. You can see how large the bottles are with the body lotion at almost 1L! Oh, and the other awesome thing? Not a single product featured here is more than $10!

I seem to be on a neutral kick as of late and I will be honest and say that because of a now more conservative work environment, my eyes have been nothing more than 50 shades of brown. Every morning I say to myself that I will get up earlier and try something different, but it never happens. I cannot seem to haul myself out of bed 15 minutes earlier to give my eye makeup some extra TLC. Thankfully, there are stepwise palettes like the new Diorshow 5 Couleurs Designer Professional Eye Palettes (6 palettes shades available) that promise to give eyes the touch of a professional makeup artist all in five easy steps. To continue on my neutrals streak, #508 Nude Pink Design* ($69.00 CDN), is just easy. You absolutely cannot go wrong with this palette short of applying the gel liner all over your eye and forgetting to blend!

Ah, the ever-trendy fad of detoxing is NOT going away. We are suddenly all about cleanses and detoxing our bodies, skin and mind. While I do agree with living a “clean” lifestyle, I have been able to completely say no to my beloved fizzy drinks or potato chips which is why the concept of a 14 day teatox is appealing to me because I know the end is in sight! I have heard/seen all over the interwebs about teatoxing and when Purgo Teafrom Victoria, BC reached out about trying their blend of organic teas I thought what better way to curb my curiosity AND support a local company!

I was so tempted to title this a “Mani Monday” type thing, but I have never been good about sticking to a schedule for nails or anything really so the inocuous title of “NAILS” will have to do. Fact: I was actually an Avon consultant for all of 6 months because I wanted to experience the product on my own terms without having a “mentor”. Working full time and fielding inquiries on the side proved to be too taxing on my time, but one thing I walked away loving were Avon’s polishes. It began with the gel finish polishes last year and now the new Metallic Fringe Top Coats* (12mL/$8.00 CDN). This finish is what I call the “muppet finish” because it looks a little like fur, but with much more sparkle! Today I am wearing 2 coats of mark. trend Mini Nail Lacquer in Futbol Blue* followed by 2 coats of Avon Fringed and Frayed. You may have to move the bar glitter around to get more even dispersal.

I did not start feeling the need for a hair dryer until my mid 20s. Maybe I started caring about my hair more in terms of styling, but because I take my showers at night I generally don’t NEED to have my hair dry by a certain point. I have always had longish hair, but for the last 2 years I have kept my hair quite long which means that air-drying can take hours. I also tend to take my showers relatively late at night and we all know how uncomfortable it is to sleep with damp hair. Not to mention how f’ed up it looks in the morning!

I have a standard drugstore brand hair dryer that draws so much power my lights flicker when I put it on the “high” setting and while it does the job, it is heavy and still takes me a solid 10-15 minutes of shaking and moving the hair dryer along the length of my hair to make sure I’m not causing my hair any heat damage. Most of us are more familiar with KISS as the creator of all things nails, but ever since the KISS Instawave (review) made its way into my life I have been wondering what hair tools KISS would come up with next! The KISS Tornado Ionic Hair Dryer*($34.96 CDN) is unlike any other hair dryer I have ever used. What sets this hair dryer apart from all of the others is a patent-pending 360 degree rotating air booster that allows for rapid blow drying with minimal heat damage as hot air is no longer concentrated on one area of the hair.

Nail art ain’t goin’ away that’s for sure. This is the sixth nail art book that I have reviewed only because nail art is why I love blogging in the first place (though I haven’t had quite as much time/inspiration to do anything complicated). Like many Cinderella beauty stories, El Salonsitobegan in 2011 (when I started blogging too!) as a platform for manicurist and nail artist, Ami Vega, to share her portfolio of nail art in addition to her love of nail polish. Four years later, Ami has teamed up with her brother Gabe to manage what is now a booming brand with celebs asking for their claws to be decked out in Ami’s handiwork. What I love about Ami’s designs is that most, if not all of it is brushwork as opposed to 3D bling. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some 3D bling, but there is something “pure” about detail and basic brushwork. I know some of you are probably screaming in your heads that even just applying polish on the nail is hard enough, but there is a manicure in this book for EVERYONE!

Following up with my Hard Candy nail post from a few weeks back (here), I have been waiting with glee to finally share the joys of the Natural Eyes Neutral Eyeshadow Palette*($7.98 CDN) that has been just wow for me. I have always wanted to give Hard Candy makeup a whirl, but maybe I needed some guidance as to where to begin. Natural eye palettes are a good place to start when trying out a new makeup line because at this point in the beauty game, we have certain standards that ALL neutral palettes must abide by. I must be able to take the palette from day to night and I can’t use up too much brain power when trying to put a look together. Behold an incredibly priced AND gorgeous option!

With matte and long-wearing lippies becoming a mainstay in the colour cosmetics department, “lip care” has become as essential as having a skincare routine. Close-up lip swatches have us critiquing the latest lip selfies and I will be the first one to admit that I DO NOT DO lip selfies. My lips aren’t full or remotely symmetrical so I tend to leave the close-ups to the pros, but that being said, I have recently started to treat my lips with a bit more TLC especially when I am in the sun or about to wear a matte lip colour since no one likes flaky lip bits. When it comes to great lip colours with SPF, Fresh Lip Treatments still reign supreme in my books and have been my go-to for the last few years. I had yet to try a whole Fresh lip routine in its entirety, but have recently added two new players to my lip-lovin’ game: Fresh Sugar Lip Polish* (17g/$26.00 CDN) and Fresh Sugar Lip Serum Advanced Therapy* (10mL/$41.00 CDN).

As a beauty blogger, I want to review EVERYTHING that comes my way, but sometimes products just aren’t for my skin type or colouring. Normally, I would have just given these products away, but this time around I sought help from a beauty loving girlfriend of mine whom I met in my computer science classes and also has a biology background like myself. I trusted that she would give you guys the same unbiased reviews as well as a bit of sass. Everyone, please welcome the lovely Jessie!

I've had... a difficult relationship with the class of moisturizers known as "hydrating gels". It's an enticing concept with the promise of all the quenching hydration, and none of the grease. Sadly for me, it only delivers on the latter. My skin was always left lackluster, and robbed of its bounce. In my skincare pantry, I keep the gels at the back, and only reach for them on those hot, humid, summer days when nothing else can get absorbed. So when I got to try the Estee Lauder Clear Difference Oil Control / Mattifying Hydrating Gel*($55.00 CDN), I was like, "Girl, you serious?" Simply put, I was expecting disappointment.

I have been using OPI Nail Envy Base Coat on and off since 2011 and back then I was amazed at how strong my nails became once I used it regularly. I am still struggling with nail breakages here and there, but I have a feeling that these are more or less due to me being rougher with my hands than I used to be. I work a pretty tame job, but still I find myself banging my nails on things and having to file them down yet again to nubbins. My right hand is just a MESS so don’t ever ask me to show it to you!

This past June OPI released four incredibly wearable shades of the new OPI Nail Envy Strength in Color ($22.50 CDN) which are a fusion of hydrolyzed wheat protein and calcium and of course such coveted colour classics like Hawaiian Orchid, Samoan Sand, Bubble Bath and a Nail Envy exclusive - Pink to Envy. Hawaiian Orchid* matched an outfit I was wearing and 2 coats was all I needed to make this polish look perfectly opaque. I dotted on some black flowers with OPI Infinite Shine - We’re in the Black* and I felt complete!

I am a recent cream blush convert and only since last year have I been unafraid to wear them. Now, I am constantly on the lookout for pigmented, blendable and fun colours to make my looks positively POP! I have been playing around with the Summer collection from Mary Kay in the last few weeks and have come across some definitive favourites that I quite possibly cannot live without starting with the Mary Kay Lip and Cheek Sticks!

Oh my has it been that long since my last skincare review? I had wanted to do week by week reviews of the Guerlain Blanc de Perle line, but work is still kicking my ass when it comes to fatigue so I haven’t been able to write all that much. If anyone has tips to gain energy (other than caffeine) please enlighten me!

I need to admit that I didn’t quite read the instructions when it came to this skincare line. I assumed that I was skincare savvy enough to figure out what all of the pieces meant, but for the first week I was using the White P.E.A.R.L. Essence in Lotion*(200mL/$78.00 CDN) almost like a moisturizer if you can believe it! It does say “Brightening Lotion” on the bottle so I figured lotion = hydration. Then when I looked at the side of the box, I saw the phrase “facial toner” which after experiencing the consistency of the product, made MUCH more sense as a HYDRATING toner. Although it actually did work as a moisturizer too when applied after serum!

Earlier this month I was invited to be an Aveda Institute Vancouver Ambassador which I did not hesitate to say “yes” to as I have been a long time user of their Rosemary Mint Shampoo and the “shampure” scent of the Hand Relief Moisturizing Hand Cream is just to DIE FOR. The first order of business was a hair appointment and tour of the Aveda Institute in Vancouver located on Water Street in the ever eclectic Gastown in downtown Vancouver. It is tourist season so this area was bustling with activity on the day of my appointment. For those unfamiliar with the Gastown area, this is the City’s oldest neighbourhood and has been designated a national historic site. There are loads of fun eats, treats and little boutiques that both visitors and locals enjoy regularly throughout the year.

Yes, this BC Day long weekend is about that shorter work week, spending time with the family and also the official launch of Vancouver Pride! There are a ton of events this weekend with today being the well-loved Pride Parade as well as more after hours partying! I am someone who is a total homebody so I took today for myself, but I was celebrating in my own way with these fun specially designed limited edition nail polish appliques from Incoco! I have reviewed Incoco before (here) and found them to be one of the better nail strips for my very curved nails. These are the Pride Nails* (14.95 USD) with proceeds from each purchase going towards supporting the health and well-being of all LGBTTQ communities!